Ask virtually anybody if the pandemic was a bad thing and most would say, “Yes!” Yet, although there were many negatives as a result of COVID-19, there were considerable positives.
Two obvious positive changes are 1) more people are choosing to eliminate meat and dairy from their diet 2) online shopping has increased substantially thereby minimizing the impact of people making needless trips to the corner grocery store for one or two items.
Combine the two and you have a winning formula.
Such is the case for Kory Zelickson, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Vejii, an online platform for those looking for vegan options in food, cosmetics, cleaners and more.
With over 15 years of demonstrated experience in innovation and technology, launching successful e-commerce, and technology startups, Kory is very hopeful of trends in the vegan and plant-based markets which makes him optimistic about the future.
Who is Kory Zelickson?
Kory is an engineer by trade with expertise in midstream processes and innovation. In 2014, Kory co-founded Namaste Technologies. Namaste Technologies, eventually becoming a publicly traded company. In 2018, the company reached a market valuation of +$1B, realizing +20x returns for its initial series of investors.
Kory was a co-founder and COO for Namaste Technologies, where he also served as VP of Business Development and IR.
Today Kory is focused on exploring areas of opportunities in emerging industries such as telehealth and plant-based foods that fall within his personal interests.
Kory considers himself an ethical vegan and is 100% committed to the lifestyle. He became a vegan for the animals yet is fully aware of the health benefits of his lifestyle choices. This is what drives him to do all he can to offer as many vegan choices to consumers as possible through www.shopvejii.com
Why Vejii?
The Vejii mission is simple: to move the world forward, one purchase at a time.
By making vegan products more accessible to everyone, they can enable humanity to take better care of themselves and the planet.
They support cruelty-free products, providing a safe place where anyone and everyone can explore the vegan lifestyle.
Vejii has a wide range of customers, many who are not vegan but want food choices that are cruelty-free.
A unique aspect of the vegan and plant-based industry is how truly collaborative it is. People, for the most part, are in it for the right reasons. They are very aligned with why they’re in the industry.
Vejii offers onboarding programs to vendors, many whom are startups. The commitment to marketing guidance by the Vejii team is appealing to their vendors. This gives everyone a greater chance for success.
What Kory and the entire Vejii team, as well as vendors, have found works well is user-generated content such as unboxing videos, reviews and images of customers with products.
In order to increase the opportunity for startups to jumpstart their sales, the Vejii platform offers a national stage for their products.
Success Tips
Kory encourages companies to focus on a strong brand design is appealing to a company’s customer base. In addition, build a strong social media presence as well as determine distribution channels for your products.
Joining the Vejii Platform
For vendors who want to have their products featured on www.shopvejii.com the process is relatively simple.
There is a standard vendor application available on the site that must be completed and submitted. Once the application is reviewed and approved, the next step is determining pricing. Vendors can set their own price point.
There is a vetting process to assure everything is vegan. Even though not all the customers are vegan, the products are.
The process takes approximately 7 – 10 days.
To assure vendors gain exposure for their products, Vejii runs social media ad campaigns as well as tapping into their network of influencers.
What appeals to customers is that there are a variety of foods that are great replacements for animal and dairy based products. Bottomline is that Vejii is trying to make it as easy as possible for people to enjoy vegan foods.
Trends
Kory is excited about trends for vegans and those who simply want to enjoy aspects of the vegan choices. Health is a big issue for a lot of people. For that reason, people will be choosing more foods that are free of animal and dairy.
Cultured meat will become more popular over the next 5 – 10 years. Although there are those who do not like the idea of cultured meat, from a cruelty free perspective, it is a great solution.
People are becoming more aware of how animal agriculture and factory farming are impacting the environment. This is also influencing their food decisions.
More of the large food manufacturers are moving into plant based and vegan alternatives. This is just the tip of the iceberg and an indication of what’s to come.
To learn more about Vejii and enjoy special discounts based on order size, visit www.Shopvejii.com
https://www.instagram.com/ShopVejii/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kory-zelickson-%E2%93%A5-98780724/
